Maxi chiller to cool down fermenter?

[Swift Pint]

Any reason why I'd use SS or Al rather than copper if its not coming into contact with any beer?

Also, what size would work best for the coil? Will 3/8 be too small?

 

[Mark1964]

stainless is just cleaner and the product coils from cornelius are here
http://www.corneliusukonline.com/siteco ... Coils.aspx
Ours is slightly flattened 10mm pipe

 

[adomant]

just a note as stainless steel seems pricey, it might work out cheaper to buy some food safe silicon tubing and have that as the outer sleeve of the copper tube? just a thought.

problem with silicon is that it insulates quite well so you wont get the heat transfer

Has anyone used PEX pipe instead of copper around the outside of the fermenter - I was thinking of the speedfit underfloor heating pipe with an insulating blanket over the top. It would be more flexible than copper and could also be wrapped around the cone, but would the heat transfer be enough to chill ?

 

[Vossy1]

I would imagine there will be much less heat transfer using plastic as you've mentioned, would it be a problem, I don't know as I've not seen it tried, my guess is it would take too long.
I've often thought about water blankets wrapped around the fermenter as a way of cooling but never managed to source any at the right size :hmm:

 

[Aleman]

While I usually use a product coil immersed in the beer and driven by my chiller for the latest 25L brew, I've gone a bit lo tech and sat the FV in a 100L Shiny pot which I have filled up with water, the Product coil sits in the water bath as does a aquarium heater. The temperature is controlled by my usual TC-10 and due to the decoupling and thermal mass of the water bath the FV temperature is rather stable

It is so much easier and more effective than trying to attach coils round the outside of the FV . . . be they copper, stainless or Plastic.

I do have a spare aquarium power head somewhere that I am planning to add to the water bath to ensure a more even temperature distribution within the water bath

 

[adomant]

That sounds like a great idea for some of my smaller bucket type FVs, but my main use FV is a conical.

The 10mm copper coil was expensive and I don't think the 10m I bought is enough. Used with a stc-100 and an aquarium heater, It does keep the temperature quite well, even for lagers at 12C and it will chill down to 6C over 3 days - which is slow, but then is crash cooling bad for diacetyl and chill haze ?

I use a maxi 110 with a solar pump to recirc water around the coil. Maybe if I stuck a smaller coil around the bottom of the cone attached to the recirc line at chill time that would at least help with settling out the yeast ?

 

[Aleman]

My Main Batches are 95L in a conical . . . Cooling is no issue using the Maxi Chiller, and a 5m Product coil immersed in the wort. For heating I use a Heat Belt about 1/3 up the cone (On the outside). I can crash chill to 2C with no issues and usually within an hour or 2 (from 18-20C for ales - Insulation is the key here).

I've not noticed diacetyl problems or excessive chill haze . . . but I do treat with Polyclar PLus as a preventative measure

 

[gvheard]

Very late here, and don't know if anyone is interested, but Sparge P, Aluminium is only any good if you don't clean with Caustic Soda. If you use a caustic cleaner it will erode the Aluminium piping very quickly